Clause 10 - restraining orders: England and Wales
Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Bill [Lords]
10:15 am
Ms Vera Baird (Redcar, Labour)
I appreciate and understand that entirely, but the apprehension that gives rise to the judge deciding that there ought to be proceedings taken against the elder sibling will have arisen in the course of evidence that the elder sibling may never have been in court to hear during the criminal trial. The urge for an injunction—in effect, a restraining order—against a sibling or any other witness will have to have come from what has happened in the course of the trial. It is easy for someone to blame someone else for what they are alleged to have done in course of a trial, as that person, even if present, will not be represented.
How does the judge fairly get to the position at which he decides that considering a restraint order is permissible? The only way it could be done would be by replaying all the evidence heard against the elder sibling in the civil proceedings after the trial. Therefore, civil proceedings might as well have been started in the first place. The proposal in the amendment is not at all practical, and I am sure that there would be repeated breaches of article 6—on the right to a fair trial—against the party who find themselves pilloried in a case with which they have never had any connection.
The bind-over provisions would require the person who is going to be bound over to agree to be bound over. That seems a much more sensible way in which to proceed. The hon. Member for Somerton and Frome should not forget that all such provisions contain an inherent power to bind a witness over if it is thought that there is any apprehension that that person will go on to breach the law. The amendment is therefore otiose.
The third, and the major reason, why I oppose the amendment is that I cannot think of anything more likely to discourage somebody who truly is a victim of domestic violence from pressing on with an allegation against the perpetrator than appreciating that if the perpetrator wants to make an allegation in court that the victim has misbehaved, she herself will become
vulnerable to the prospect of a restraining order, backed by criminal sanctions. That would be totally discouraging, and it flies completely in the opposite direction of the Bill.